From This Corner - Gov's extended education plan far from being 'free'

Written by Paul Gauvin

June 08, 2007

The press and politicians ought not be using the word "free" to describe Gov. Deval Patrick's billion dollar proposal to extend public education to all Massachusetts school children through junior college.

It would be "free" only if teachers and school personnel volunteered their time, bookmakers donated their tomes, utilities didn't charge for power and heat and if Warren Buffet and Bill Gates built and maintained all the schools.

The proposal is an expansion of the public education system that provides school buildings, teachers and support personnel under the auspices of local and state taxpayers already fretting over rising school costs.

Barnstable officials have correctly read this concern and rather than attempt overrides on local taxes or shift priorities from, for example, road projects, Barnstable has turned to charging parents for school transportation, heretofore "free," implementing fees for participation in certain extra-curricular programs and planning to close old schools to cut costs.

It almost seems like a town step toward making schools an enterprise account -- all funded by user fees.

Education is an expensive industry. The national budget, for all schools, public and private, says the U.S. Department of Education, is $1.14 trillion (2007).

"Free," meaning "costing nothing, gratuitous" is hardly the case with public education. The costs are borne by taxpayers in general and parents and working students in particular when it comes to college.

Public school education is labor intensive. Barnstable had 6,178 students at the close of the last school year. It took a workforce of around 1,000 people to keep the system going, including teachers and support personnel, compared to about 100 policemen to cover a town of more than 50,000. The school budget this year is $58.6 million, with about $$43 million, or 74 percent of the budget, in the salary account. The budget would have been $59.4M if it had been level funded.

It is being funded by $55.8M in expected revenue (taxes, state grants and aid, etc) and $2.8 million from the department's savings account, leaving a shortfall of about $700,000.

Supt. Patricia Grenier had to cut three elementary teachers, two high school teachers, a district administrator, one central office support staff, reduce elementary enrichment specialists, reduce funds for data teams, and reallocate some staff among other cost-cutting steps to cover the shortfall,.

As salaries for school teachers rise, along with utilities and maintenance costs, the hope would be to receive more state aid to help stabilize the property tax, particularly for property owners on fixed or limited incomes who are trailing inflation. But if the state is going to spend a billion extra to extend "free" education...what happens to that aid?

The governor's proposal is as undoable as a reporter buying a waterfront trophy home. Just can't afford it. Obviously, the state can't cut school aid to municipalities already clamoring for more. The governor can't tack an extra billion dollars onto what is an already heavy tax burden without talk of mutiny on the ship of state.

And insofar as no governor or educator has ever yet proven to be an errorless prognosticator, there is no guarantee that extending public school education by two years will yield anything near the yearly cost of the investment that, like all other school budgets, would continue to escalate and eventually break the bank.

If America is not producing and/or nurturing the potential talent of students, it is not for the lack of spending, but more a systemic issue that includes the tepid study effort by students more concerned with immediate gratification and parents too busy to cheerlead.

Extending the "free" school years by two for unmotivated students is a losing proposition. Motivated students find ways to raise the money to attend college, although a few economically deprived are at risk of falling through the cracks.

In the past, extended schooling, from 6th Grade to 8th, then through high school, began as a way to keep throngs of young people out of the job market a bit longer when there were not that many jobs available.

That's hardly the case today. Unemployment is only 4.6 percent.

Two more years of "free" schooling isn't going to change the reality that spending another billion won't solve the root socio-educational problem.